STATE OF TAMIL NADU Vs. MAHI TRADERS:TVL INTER CONTINENTAL LEATHER TRADERS MADRAS:G N R INDUSTRIES: S A G S ARMUGHAM AND CO:PRASAD LEATHER MART:SEEMA LEATHER CO :S K S AND SONS:THIR NISAR PRIME TANNERY:C KALAYANAM:P JAYAM TRADING CORPN :T A A

JUDGEMENT

(1.) All these civil appeals and special leave petitions raise a common question as to the interpretation of an expression used in the Central Sales-tax Act. Some of these matters arise out of judgments of the High Court in Tax Revision cases and some out of judgments in writ petitions but the point involved is the same. In view of the pendency of the appeals, we grant leave in the special leave petitions after condoning the delay in filing some of them and proceed to dispose of all the appeals by a common order.

(2.) The respondents are all dealers in hides and skins carrying on business in the State of Tamil Nadu. As is well known, raw hides and skins undergo various processes such as cutting, tanning, dyeing, dressing and finishing before they get converted into finished leather and assume a condition fit for the manufacture of various kinds of leather articles. The dispute in these appeals is in regard to two items of goods that are sold by these assessees viz. leather splits and coloured leather. The splits are the cut pieces, often small and irregular, obtained in the process of cutting raw or tanned hides and skins either with a view to reduce their thickness or with a view to give them a regular shape. Coloured leather is obtained when the tanned hides and skins are dyed with various colours. The assessees, inter alia, deal in these two items, their manner of such dealing varying from case to case. Some of them obtain the leather splits in the process of cutting and sell them while some purchase the cuttings and sell them as such. So also, the coloured leather is obtained by some of the assessees in the process of finishing and they sell them while others purchase the coloured leather and sell them as such. The assessees' claim is that these two items fall in the list of "goods of special importance in inter-State trade and commerce" set out in S. 14 of the Central Sales-Tax Act, 1956 (the 'CST Act') and that, therefore, the assessee is entitled, in respect of their sales, to the concessions available under S. 15 of the CST Act viz. the benefits of single point taxation and of a smaller rate of tax. The sole question in these appeals is whether the High Court was right in upholding this claim. The principal judgment of the High Court on this point has been reported as Mahi Traders v. State of Tamil Nadu, (1980) 45 STC 327.

(3.) The relevant entry in S. 14 of the CST Act reads: